A case of dangerous fog wreaked havoc with cruise ship operations on the west coast of Florida.
Heavy winter fog enveloped Tampa Bay on Saturday morning, forcing the closure of Port of Tampa Bay. This delayed docking of three of Royal Caribbean’s ships:
Rhapsody of the SeasEnchantment of the SeasGrandeur of the Seas
The issue was the fog was too dense for secure navigation and thus that delayed every ship’s arrival by a minimum of eight hours.
The delay impacted each the sailings wrapping up and the following set of sailings scheduled to start on Saturday.
Delayed ships
All three of the delayed ships are among the many oldest in Royal Caribbean’s fleet.
Rhapsody of the Seas, Enchantment of the Seas, and Grandeur of the Seas are all Imaginative and prescient Class ships. Every is between roughly 73,800 and 82,900 gross tons, they usually entered service within the mid to late Nineteen Nineties.
Rhapsody of the Seas: Coming back from a 7-night Western Caribbean cruise, the ship was scheduled to start a brand new 7-night voyage with calls to Cozumel, Costa Maya, and Belize.Enchantment of the Seas: Coming back from a 5-night cruise with two Mexican ports, slated for one more 5-night crusing visiting Costa Maya and Cozumel.Grandeur of the Seas: Coming back from a 7-night cruise and schedule for one more week-long journey calling Cozumel, Belize, Roatán, and Costa Maya.
For all three ships, as a substitute of arriving within the early morning as deliberate, docking and disembarkation needed to be delayed till late afternoon or early night.
For instance, visitors on Rhapsody of the Seas who initially had appointments to reach on the terminal round 11:00 a.m. had been notified they need to now arrive round 7:00 p.m., with the newest arrival pushed to 9:30 p.m.
The impression was fairly massive contemplating folks on the ship ready to disembark and other people ready for the brand new crusing had been impacted.
Based on an announcement shared by Port of Tampa Bay, “All Cruise Ships are delayed from getting into port at the moment because of fog within the bay.”
Friends on Rhapsody of the Seas obtained an e mail from the cruise line informing them of the delay:
“On account of dense fog earlier at the moment, our ship was delayed returning to Port Tampa Bay. Because of this, the terminal won’t be open for embarkation, and we might want to push again our boarding.”
Related notifications had been despatched to visitors on the opposite two ships.
Later, Rhapsody of the Seas was given permission to enter the bay first.
Fog is a protracted working seasonal downside in Tampa
If you happen to’ve sailed from Tampa up to now, you will have heard of fog delays there.
Port of Tampa Bay is situated on the northern finish of the bay, about 30 miles from the Sunshine Skyway Bridge and near 40 miles from the bay’s mouth.
Even in good climate, it takes 2.5–3 hours for a cruise ship to transit from open waters to the terminal.
When fog is dense, the port usually shuts down totally till it is secure to renew operations. Which means all marine visitors, together with cruise ships and cargo vessels, are halted till visibility improves sufficient to make sure secure passage.
On Saturday, that meant all three Royal Caribbean ships had been caught outdoors the bay till the afternoon.
Ships caught ready to enter the bay then run right into a domino delay impact. When a number of ships are ready to dock, it takes time not solely to get every vessel in, but in addition to safe pilots, coordinate tugs, and guarantee secure passage for all.
The winter cruise season brings extra ships than regular to Tampa, and turnaround day with three ships in port pile onto the delays.
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